Life, Death, and Pain
by Barbara
Summary: What was Dr. Curzon doing treating Liam, and where were Drs. Park and Belman?


This story came from a couple of very simple questions.  What was Dr. Curzon doing treating Liam, and where were Drs. Park and Belman?

Life, Death, and Pain

By Barbara

(Epiphany spoilers)

Disclaimer:  They ain't mine.  I wish they were, but they belong to someone else.

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Dr. Allison Curzon sighed.  Yesterday had been nerve-racking.  Liam's death, and then revival had been nothing short of miraculous.  Being one of Liam's physicians was interesting to say the least.  He was only rarely ill, but when he was, it was like diagnosing by the seat of your pants.  While she knew a lot about Taelon medicine, there was a significant difference between Taelons and Kimera.  Add in that Liam was a hybrid of Kimera and human, and his reactions could never be predicted.  What worked on a Taelon might not work on Liam, either due to the differences between Taelon and Kimera or due to his human DNA.  Conversely, what worked on a human might not work on him due to the bits of Kimeran physiology he had.  She understood why Drs. Belman and Park had wanted a specialist able to treat Liam, but what she had learned from the Taelons didn't help a lot when dealing with Liam.

She needed to discuss what had happened with both Dr. Park and Dr. Belman, but it could wait until Dr. Park was feeling better.  She had been stricken with a severe bout of flu, the only reason she had not been at Liam's bedside.  As for Dr. Belman, the project she had been working on in London had had some serious difficulties while Liam was ill which had prevented her arrival in DC.  Dr. Curzon knew that both of them would have been present if they had been able to.  She had fielded calls from both of them several times as they tried to keep apprised of Liam's condition and prognosis.  

They had been devastated when they had been informed of Liam's death, particularly since neither of them had been there when it occurred.  Dr. Park had almost come to the hospital to see Liam, but Allison had convinced her that Liam wouldn't have wanted her risking her health.  She had been weak as a kitten with a fever of over 103, but she had still planned to come to the hospital.  Only Dr. Curzon's arguments had finally convinced her to stay in bed.  Nothing would have been able to keep Dr. Belman in London when she had heard the news.  She had portalled to DC immediately, where she had said her goodbyes to Liam before Renee had taken his body to portal into space.  Then, she had gone to be with Dr. Park, to grieve with a friend who couldn't see Liam before his 'burial'.  

The elation on their faces at the news of his revival had been a joy to see.  Dr. Belman had insisted in coming over to see Liam, to insure for herself that he was still alive.  She had then soundly berated him for putting them through so much pain and grief.  The blush on Liam's face at her lecture had been surprising.  After a thorough talking-to, which had lasted over ten minutes,(she had timed it), she had told him to global Dr. Park to put her fears for him to rest.  His shyness and embarrassment over their concern had been heartwarming.

Leaning back in her chair, Dr. Curzon still couldn't believe the Resistance trusted her like it had.  Her simply knowing of Liam's existence was a danger.  Doctors Belman and Park had sounded her out over several weeks before deciding to tell her the truth.  She suspected the only reason they'd even thought of telling her the truth was because of her specialization in inter-species medicine.  Dr. Park, while a fine doctor, was not a specialist, and therefore couldn't join the inter-species medical group being set up.  Dr. Belman was almost exclusively a research scientist.  Her trying to join an interspecies medical group would have been suspicious.  She wasn't a practicing physician any longer, so it would have seemed odd for her to try to join.  

The two of them were clearly afraid that something might happen to Liam one day, and that they wouldn't know what to do, but that someone who had specialized in interspecies medicine might.  She suspected the two doctors had carefully reviewed everything they and the Resistance could dig up on all of the doctors in the interspecies medical program before deciding to approach her.  It had taken some careful feeling out over several weeks before they had trusted her, and even then they hadn't revealed Liam's name.  After a couple of months had passed, during which time they had watched carefully to see if she turned the information over to the Taelons, they had finally allowed her to know whose scans she had been examining.  Liam had come in for a check-up, and she had joined Dr. Park in the quarterly procedure.  They hadn't told her who was coming, so she had been extremely surprised to discover the identity of the only Human/Kimera hybrid in existence.  

His identity had led her to wonder about one of the biggest questions she had had in her medical career- the identity of the anonymous blood donor for Agent Sandoval.  The oddities present in the blood had been one of the things that had made her decide to apply for the interspecies medical group.  She didn't know much about them, and they had intrigued her.  

She hadn't thought she would ever learn who the donor had been, until she had discovered the truth about Major Kincaid.  He had been the only one who had appeared interested in Agent Sandoval's well-being while the Agent was in the hospital.  Of course, at the time, she hadn't thought of him as a possible donor due to his age.  But the oddities in the blood, combined with her new-found knowledge of Liam's heritage, had led her to rethink that possibility.  So she wasn't extremely surprised when the DNA test had turned out positive.  Agent Sandoval was Major Kincaid's father.  

It made her conversations with Agent Sandoval _interesting, to say the least.  She was his physician of record, as she was Liam's.  She saw them both every few months for their quarterly checkup.  Both of them confided in her.  Liam had told her everything Sandoval had done to him.  He had had to, as she had had to check for damage caused by the nanobots, and by the beating he had received on the mothership.  Seeing how Sandoval treated Liam was heartbreaking.  She knew he wanted to know his son, he had told her that much, but she couldn't tell him his identity even though she knew it, because she would be breaking doctor-patient confidentiality with Liam.  Nor could she tell Liam that Sandoval wanted to know his son, as that would be doing the same to Sandoval.  And so, here she was stuck in between them- watching Liam pull further and further into a shell as his father hurt him, and unable to tell his father how much damage he was dong to his son.  At times, she wished she could just bang their heads together._

She sighed.  She knew Sandoval would be here soon to see if he could manipulate her medical report to relieve Liam of duty.  She had blatantly lied on it- after all she couldn't say Liam had died and come back to life because he was part alien.  She was determined to keep Sandoval from using what had happened to Liam to relieve him of duty.  As she braced herself for the coming confrontation, she wondered what would happen if Sandoval ever learned the truth about Liam's heritage.

End


End file.
